No, Rand Paul Did Not Say “Guns Are For Shooting at The Gov’t”

No, Rand Paul Did Not Say “Guns Are For Shooting at The Gov’t”

Senator Rand Paul was in attendance when a crazy gunman opened fire at a baseball practice. Paul released a statement praising the Capitol Police who quickly shot the assailant and got the situation under control despite the 50 rounds that he fired.

However, during the Obama administration Paul was toting some different rhetoric, or at least that’s the way the liberal media has portrayed it.

Clearly, we at BlueDot Daily do not agree with the GOP’s positions and ideals, but it’s important to get the facts straight here and call out the media when they get it wrong.

What’s True: Yes, Rand Paul’s Twitter account posted a message that said the Second Amendment was created not to “shoot deer,” but to allow people “to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!”

What’s False: This was not the words of Rand Paul. He was quoting a comment from Judge Napolitano.

Some pointed the finger at Senator Rand Paul for tweeting in June 2016 that the Second Amendment was created to allow citizens to shoot government tyrants:

This message is genuine. It was posted by Paul on 23 June 2016, and remains on his timeline. However, the words in the tweet are not Paul’s; they are a quote from Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News judicial analyst and author. His Twitter handle, @Judgenap, appears at the beginning of the tweet to show that Paul is quoting Napolitano, who at the time was speaking at a lecture series Paul organized.

Although we have not been able to locate a recording of Napolitano’s speech, this idea — that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to shoot government tyrants — has been one of Napolitano’s talking points since at least 2013.